


Making the News

by ScienceOfficerWillowRosenberg (workaholicSlacker)



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Trans Female Character, Trans Oz, Wherein I attempt to be a rock critic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-09-16 13:17:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9273455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/workaholicSlacker/pseuds/ScienceOfficerWillowRosenberg
Summary: Emily 'Oz' Osbourne's new band gets reviewed in the UC Sunnydale newspaper.Possibly part of an ongoing S4 AU, but I make no promises.





	

It was the week before finals, so this was probably the last Oz was going to see of Willow for a little while.  She knocked on the dorm room door, hoping to make the most of it.

Willow opened up.  "Hey, babe," she said.

Oz smiled.  "I love hearing you call me that."

"Well, you're a babe."

"I'm alright."

Willow gave her a quick peck on the lips, and the two walked into the room.  Oz plopped herself down on the bed.  "I've got news."

"Me too!  Do you want to go first or should I?  It's good news, right?"

Oz smiled.  "It is."

"On a scale of one to ten, how big of news is it?"

"Like a four?"

"Okay, you go first, because mine's way bigger than that."

Oz pulled out a copy of  _The Town Cryer,_ UC Sunnydale's campus newspaper.  "Arts section," she said.

The lead story was a review of Detachable Head's latest gig.  Detachable Head was Oz's new band.  She'd wanted to sing lead for a while now, but she didn't want to do it as 'Daniel Osbourne;' she wanted to do it as herself.  So when she came out, she left Dingoes Ate My Baby to do her own thing.  The new guitarist was kinda better, anyway.  

The name was an L. Frank Baum reference.  She and Willow and Xander had been up till stupid o'clock back one night, and the question of what the feminine form of the name 'Oz' was came up.  Willow suggested 'Ozma,' and, at that moment, it was the funniest thing in the world.  All Oz remembered of _Ozma of Oz_ was that there was a woman in it who could detach and swap out her heads.  And that was cool, she thought.   So there was the band name.

"Baby, they call you 'the Laura Jane Grace of UC Sunnydale!'"  Willow kissed her on the forehead.

"I mean, I don't sing or play like her, so I'm not sure how to feel about the comparison.  Keep going.  Paragraph six gets it."

Willow read aloud.  "Part of what makes Detachable Head important is that they have  _actual happy songs_.  Cis listeners (your erstwhile chronicler included) need it smacked into our thick heads that being trans has more to it than anguish.  Now, any young person with a guitar is going to sing about how they can't get no sat-is-fack-shun, and as a trans woman, Osbourne's dissatisfaction is going to look different from, say, Axl Rose's (and thank Zeus for that!).  But, and this is a big but, she's not there for you to pity.  No, ma'am, she is there to rock!  The best example of that wasn't any of the DH originals played last night, but a Lemonheads cover, of all things.  Osbourne took 'Allison's Starting to Happen,' made it even sound even sunnier, and made it from a song about realizing you're in love into one about realizing you're  _you._  'I never looked at her this way before, but now she's all I see--" get it?  It was the final number, and the band had started to tire out, but this gave them a shot in the arm.  You know how you can hear a smile in someone's voice?  Well, Osbourne sang the chorus like this: "Allison's starting to happen, Allison's starting to happen, Allison's starting to happen [pregnant pause, biggest goddamn smile you ever heard]  to _me!'"_

Willow turned to Oz and smiled wordlessly.

"So what's your news?" asked Oz

"We're gonna be roomies!"

Oz didn't know what her face looked like right now, but she wouldn't be surprised if she was actually giving off light.  "They OK'd me living in the girls' dorm?"

"Damn right they did, you history-maker you."

Oz laughed.  "Oh, shit."

"What?"

"I'm probably gonna be in the _actual_ newspaper."


End file.
